Bundesliga, the top 4 teams from the previous season of the 3. Liga and the 24 amateur teams that qualified through regional football tournaments.

Teams from one pot are drawn against teams from the other pot. Since , the teams from the pot containing amateur teams play the game at home.

For the second round, the teams are again divided into two pots according to the same principles. Depending on the results of the first round, the pots might not be equal in terms of number.

Teams from one pot are drawn against teams from the other pot until one pot is empty. The remaining teams are then drawn against each other with the team first drawn playing the game at home.

For the remaining rounds, other than the final, the teams are drawn from one pot. Since the final has been held in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin.

Extra time will be played if the scores are level after 90 minutes with a penalty shootout following if needed. Historically the number of participants in the main tournament has varied between four from until and from through resulting in tournaments of two to seven rounds.

Since the inception of the Bundesliga in all clubs from the Bundesliga are automatically qualified for the DFB-Pokal as are all clubs from the 2.

Bundesliga since its inception in Reserve sides for most of the time were allowed to participate in the DFB-Pokal but have been excluded since The final has been held at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin every season since Before , the host of the final was determined on short notice.

Originally the cup games were held over two 45 minute halves with two 15 minute overtime periods in case of a draw. If the score was still level after minutes the game was replayed with the home field right reversed.

In the Tschammer-Pokal the semi-final between Waldhof Mannheim and Wacker Wien was played to a draw three times before the game was decided by lot.

The German Football Association decided to hold a penalty shootout if the replay was another draw after a similar situation arose in the cup , when the match between Alemannia Aachen and Werder Bremen had to be decided by lot after two draws.

In —72 and —73 , the matches were held over two legs. The second leg was extended by two additional minute overtime periods if the aggregate was a draw after both legs.

In case the extension brought no decision, a penalty shootout was held. In , the final 1. Hertha BSC had to be replayed, leading to great logistical difficulties.

In the aftermath, the DFB opted not to replay cup finals in the future, instead holding a penalty shootout after extra time.

Eventually, this change was extended to all cup games in If the cup winner had already qualified for the European Club Champions Cup , the losing finalist moved into the Cup Winners' Cup instead.

If the DFB-Pokal winner or both finalists qualify through the Bundesliga for European cup competitions, the best placed team of the Bundesliga not already qualified for at least the Europa League receives the spot.

The first German cup was held in The first final was contested between the two most successful clubs of that era, 1.

FC Nürnberg and Schalke 04 , with Nürnberg winning 2 — 0. In , the original trophy, Goldfasanen-Pokal , was substituted by the trophy which is still awarded today, because the original reminded DFB president Peco Bauwens of the Nazi era.

Originally, the DFB-Pokal was a competition open to clubs from the top divisions of German football only.

Spanish-language telecasts air on Fox Deportes. Matches stream online for subscribers to these channels on participating providers via Fox Sports Go , and are also available through the subscription service Fox Soccer Match Pass.

ITV4 broadcasts delayed highlights the following Monday. This arrangement lasts through the season. In , digital TV operator StarTimes acquired exclusive television rights for Sub-Saharan Africa for 5 years starting from season.

In total, 43 clubs have won the German championship , including titles won before the Bundesliga's inception and those in the East German Oberliga.

FC Nürnberg with 9. The following 12 clubs have won the Bundesliga: No club from former East Germany or Berlin has won the Bundesliga.

Each country's usage is unique and in Germany the practice is to award one star for three titles, two stars for five titles, three stars for 10 titles, and four stars for 20 titles.

The former East German side Dynamo Berlin laid claim to the three stars of a time champion. They petitioned the league to have their DDR-Oberliga titles recognized, but received no reply.

Dynamo eventually took matters into their own hands and emblazoned their jerseys with three stars. This caused some debate given what may be the tainted nature of their championships under the patronage of East Germany's secret police, the Stasi.

The issue also affects other former East German and pre-Bundesliga champions. In November , the DFB allowed all former champions to display a single star inscribed with the number of titles, including all German men's titles since , women's titles since and East German titles.

BFC Dynamo Berlin have not followed this guideline and continue to wear three stars, rather than a single star inscribed with the number Greuther Fürth unofficially display three silver stars for pre-war titles in spite of being in the Bundesliga second division.

These stars are a permanent part of their crest. However, Fürth has to leave the stars out on their jersey. Since June , the following clubs have been officially allowed to wear stars while playing in the Bundesliga.

The number in parentheses is for Bundesliga titles won. In addition, a system of one star designation was adopted for use.

This system is intended to take into account not only Bundesliga titles but also other now defunct national championships.

As of July , the following clubs are allowed to wear one star while playing outside the Bundesliga. The number in parentheses is for total league championships won over the course of German football history, and would be displayed within the star.

Some teams listed here had different names while winning their respective championships, these names are also noted in parentheses.

For the first time in , the Bundesliga was given its own logo to distinguish itself. Six years later, the logo was revamped into a portrait orientation, which was used until A new logo was announced for the —11 season in order to modernise the brand logo for all media platforms.

In December , it was announced that a new logo would be used for the —18 season, modified slightly for digitisation requirements, featuring a matte look.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article is about the German men's football league. For the German women's football league, see Frauen-Bundesliga.

For other uses, see Bundesliga disambiguation. History of German football. Introduction of the Bundesliga. List of German football champions.

Logo used during the —13 season , the 50th Bundesliga season. List of Bundesliga top scorers. Football in Germany portal. Retrieved 4 November Retrieved 4 January Archived from the original on 16 July Retrieved 17 July Retrieved 8 September Retrieved 12 May Retrieved 20 July Retrieved 30 May Retrieved 8 March Retrieved 14 July Retrieved 23 August Bundesliga champions in numbers".

Archived from the original on 20 August Retrieved 14 April Retrieved 31 July Retrieved 13 July Haller's late, late show Sebastien Haller had the final say to salvage Eintracht Frankfurt a last-gasp draw in Nuremberg.

The unexpected American connection Check out five Bundesliga stars past and present with a surprising link to the US of A Salcedo set to return early - again!

Frankfurt's Carlos Salcedo is on course to make his comeback following a serious ankle injury. Frankfurt Düsseldorf Luka Jovic became the youngest player to score five goals in a Bundesliga game at the age of MD8's Man of the Matchday Frankfurt's year-old striker became the youngest player to score five goals in a Bundesliga game.

That match, in particular, may have caused a significant paradigm shift in German football. All of a sudden Bayern feel vulnerable.

Frankfurt, on the other hand, were excellent in May. In fact, Frankfurt beat Bayern the same way that many smaller sides beat the favourites at the World Cup.

They set back and quickly hit the Bavarians in the transition game. A crowning achievement before joining the very club he beat.

Arriving with the Pokal means that he now has some credit to make the sort of tough decisions that will be expected from him this season. Also the Supercup will be important as it will set the tone for the rest of the season.

The year-old, however, has never coached a top club and there are more than a few that doubt that he is the right man for Bayern.

Frankfurt, in the meantime, have nothing to lose. After a year on loan at Hoffenheim, Serge Gnabry is finally ready to get started at Bayern. Bayern had secured the signing of Gnabry two seasons ago before he headed to Werder Bremen.

Since , the 3. Below the level of the 3. Liga, leagues are generally subdivided on a regional basis. Below this are thirteen parallel divisions, most of which are called Oberligen upper leagues which represent federal states or large urban and geographical areas.

The levels below the Oberligen differ between the local areas. The league structure has changed frequently and typically reflects the degree of participation in the sport in various parts of the country.

In the early s, changes were driven by the reunification of Germany and the subsequent integration of the national league of East Germany.

Every team in the two Bundesligen must have a licence to play in the league, or else they are relegated into the regional leagues.

To obtain a licence, teams must be financially healthy and meet certain standards of conduct as organisations. Bundesliga is financially strong, and the 2.

Bundesliga has begun to evolve in a similar direction, becoming more stable organizationally and financially, and reflecting an increasingly higher standard of professional play.

Hamburger SV was the only club to have played continuously in the Bundesliga since its foundation until 12 May , when the club was relegated for the first time.

In the —09 season, the Bundesliga reinstated an earlier German system of promotion and relegation, which had been in use from until From until , a different system had been used in which the bottom three finishers of the Bundesliga had been automatically relegated, to be replaced by the top three finishers in the 2.

From until two, or later three, teams had been relegated from the Bundesliga automatically, while promotion had been decided either completely or partially in promotion play-offs.

The season starts in early August [4] and lasts until late May, with a winter break of six weeks mid-December through to the end of January.

In recent years, games have been played on Saturdays five games beginning at 3: A new television deal in reintroduced a Friday game beginning at 8: Prior to the formation of the Bundesliga, German football was played at an amateur level in a large number of sub-regional leagues until, in , part-time semi- professionalism was introduced and only five regional Oberligen Premier Leagues remained.

Regional champions and runners-up played a series of playoff matches for the right to compete in a final game for the national championship. Through the s, there were continued calls for the formation of a central professional league, especially as professional leagues in other countries began to draw Germany's best players away from the semi-professional domestic leagues.

At the international level the German game began to falter as German teams often fared poorly against professional teams from other countries.

The league fielded 14 teams with two relegation spots. The defeat of the national team by Yugoslavia 0—1 in a World Cup quarter-final game in Chile was one impetus of many towards the formation of a national league.

East Germany, behind the Iron Curtain, maintained its separate league structure. The first Bundesliga games were played on 24 August FC Köln was the first Bundesliga champion with Dynamo Dresden and F.

Hansa Rostock were seeded into the top-tier Bundesliga division, with other clubs being sorted into lower tiers. The German football champion is decided strictly by play in the Bundesliga.

Each club plays every other club once at home and once away. Originally, a victory was worth two points, with one point for a draw and none for a loss.

Since the —96 season, a victory has been worth three points, while a draw remains worth a single point, and zero points are given for a loss.

The club with the most points at the end of the season becomes German champion. Currently, the top three clubs in the table qualify automatically for the group phase of the UEFA Champions League , while the fourth-place team enters the Champions League at the third qualifying round see overview.

The two teams at the bottom of the table are relegated into the 2. Bundesliga, while the top two teams in the 2. The 16th-placed team third-last , and the third-placed team in the 2.

Bundesliga play a two-leg play-off match. The winner of this match plays the next season in the Bundesliga, and the loser in the 2.

If two clubs are still tied after all of these tie-breakers have been applied, a single match is held at a neutral site to determine the placement.

However, this has never been necessary in the history of the Bundesliga. In terms of team selection, matchday squads must have no more than five non-EU representatives.

Seven substitutes are permitted to be selected, from which three can be used in the duration of the game. That year it was the only European football league where clubs collectively made a profit.

The Bundesliga has the lowest ticket prices and the highest average attendance out of Europe's five major leagues. By contrast, in the other major European leagues, numerous high-profile teams have come under ownership of foreign billionaires, and a significant number of clubs have high levels of debt.

In the cases of Bayer Leverkusen and Wolfsburg, the clubs were founded by major corporations respectively Bayer AG and Volkswagen as sports clubs for their employees, while Hoffenheim has long received its primary support from SAP co-founder Dietmar Hopp , who played in the club's youth system.

After the German Football Association and the Bundesliga mandated that all clubs run a youth academy , with the aim of bolstering the stream of local talent for the club and national team.

This allows more money to be spent on the players that are bought, and there is a greater chance to buy better instead of average players.

In the first decade of the third millennium s , the Bundesliga was regarded as competitive, as five teams have won the league title.

At the end of each season, clubs in the Bundesliga must apply to the German Football Federation DFB for a licence to participate again the following year; only when the DFB, who have access to all transfer documents and accounts, are satisfied that there is no threat of insolvency do they give approval.

In addition, no individual is allowed to own more than 49 percent of any Bundesliga club, the only exceptions being VfL Wolfsburg , Bayer Leverkusen and current Regionalliga Nordost member FC Carl Zeiss Jena should they ever be promoted to the Bundesliga as they were each founded as factory teams.

Despite the good economic governance, there have still been some instances of clubs getting into difficulties.

In subsequent years, the club went through extensive restructuring to return to financial health, largely with young home-grown players.

Based on its per-game average, the Bundesliga is the best-attended association football league in the world; out of all sports, its average of 45, fans per game during the —12 season was the second highest of any professional sports league worldwide, behind only the National Football League of the United States.

Out of Europe's five major football leagues Premier League , La Liga , Ligue 1 , and Serie A , the Bundesliga has the lowest ticket prices and the highest average attendance.

Frankfurt's year-old striker became the youngest player to score five goals in a Bundesliga game. Get the lowdown on the Eintracht Frankfurt attacker known as 'the Serbian Falcao' in his homeland.

Bundesliga Player of the Month: October Player of the Month candidate: All the MD10 goals! The candidates Ten matches in, bundesliga.